that learners' motivations for participating in adult education are many, complex, and subject to change. The search for an underlying motivational structure related to participation is likely to continue, however, for such knowledge “can assist educators and administrators in identifying and meeting the needs of a wide spectrum of learners relative to program content, as well as the time, duration, and location of related activities” (Fujita-Starck, 1996, p. 39).
Barriers to Participation
Knowing why adults participate in formal adult education does not tell us why many do not. That is, we cannot assume that those who are not participating are happily employed and satisfied with their family, community, and leisure activities. In fact, one of the field's biggest mysteries is why more adults, especially those who might benefit the most, are not involved in adult education. This question has prompted research into why adults do not participate in adult education. One of the earlier models and one still used in research today is Cross’s (1981) conceptualizing of barriers to participation. She identified three major categories of barriers—situational, institutional, and dispositional. Situational barriers are those factors present in an adult's life at any point in time, such as lack of time and money, and home and work responsibilities. Institutional barriers include such factors as course scheduling, location of classes, lack of information, and parking. Dispositional barriers relate to “attitudes and self-perceptions about oneself as a learner” (Cross, 1981, p. 98) and include such things as lack of confidence, feeling “too old” to learn, and so on.
Using Cross’s (1981) framework of situational, institutional, and dispositional barriers to participation, Patterson (2018) analyzed two national studies of adult competencies, one conducted in 2012 with 5,010 adults and one conducted in 2014 with more than 8,000 adults. She summarizes reasons for nonparticipation in education as follows: “Situational deterrents of increasing age, parental education, low income, and work and family responsibilities contribute to nonparticipation. Dispositional deterrents include health and disability challenges, low social trust, and difficulties relating new ideas to real life. Institutional deterrents are education costs and little work schedule flexibility” (abstract, p. 41). Factors favoring participation included “liking to learn new things, use of computers, and getting information from television and trusted people in their lives” (p. 57). Patterson offers numerous suggestions for dealing with these barriers, including promoting flexible work hours to allow for participation, asking nonparticipants for suggestions about what they might want to learn, making use of computers and smartphones and even television for recruiting, and engaging nonparticipants through family, friends, and coworkers.
The two most often cited reasons for nonparticipation are lack of time and lack of money. These are socially acceptable reasons for not doing something, of course, and probably very legitimate reasons for adults who are busy people trying to become or stay economically solvent and take care of their families and themselves. Johnstone and Rivera (1965) in their national study of participation found that 43% cited cost as a reason for not attending adult education courses and 39% said they were too busy. These were also the two main reasons for nonparticipation cited in the UNESCO study (Valentine, 1997). Forty-five percent of respondents said lack of time was a barrier for job-related education; this figure climbs to 60.1% for non-job-related education. Interestingly, 33.4% gave cost as a barrier for job-related education, but 25.4% reported cost as a barrier for non-job-related education (Valentine, 1997). For both types of education, “family responsibilities” was cited as the next most salient barrier.
Reasons why adults do not participate have been clustered by several researchers into types of barriers. Johnstone and Rivera (1965) clustered 10 potential barriers into two categories: external, or situational, and internal, or dispositional, barriers. External barriers are “influences more or less external to the individual or at least beyond the individual's control” (p. 214), such as cost of the program. Internal barriers reflect personal attitudes, such as thinking one is too old to learn. Older adults, for example, cited more dispositional barriers, and younger people and women were more constrained by situational barriers. In contrast, Valentine's (1997) analysis of the UNESCO data revealed that situational barriers affected both men and women: “Women were more likely than men to report that family responsibilities interfered with both job-related and non-job-related education. Men were more likely than women to report that work demands interfered with non-job-related education” (p. 107).
Darkenwald and colleagues went beyond the three-part or four-part barrier typologies in developing a scale of deterrents to participation that can be factor-analyzed to reveal the structure of reasons underlying nonparticipation (in much the same way Boshier's EPS does for participation). A form of the Deterrents to Participation Scale (DPS) used with the general adult public revealed six factors of nonparticipation: lack of confidence, lack of course relevance, time constraints, low personal priority, cost, and personal problems (such as child care, family problems, and personal health; Darkenwald & Valentine, 1985). In a later analysis of the same data, Valentine and Darkenwald (1990) derived a typology of adult nonparticipants. According to their analysis, the adult nonparticipants in the general public cluster into five distinct groups. People are deterred from participating by personal problems, lack of confidence, educational costs, lack of interest in organized education generally, or lack of interest in available courses.
Identifying and understanding barriers to participation in adult education remains an important area of investigation. Using Cross’s (1981) three categories of barriers, Roosmaa and Saar (2017) conducted a cross-national study of perceived barriers to participation in 19 European countries. They found that “institutional barriers are perceived most often in the Baltic countries, situational barriers occur most frequently in liberal and continental countries, whereas dispositional barriers are most frequent in all post-socialist countries as well as in Southern Europe” (abstract, p. 254). They note that their findings confirm “the significance of including structural and institutional factors in addition to individual characteristics in explaining barriers to adult learning” (abstract, p. 254). In another comparative study of participation between Portugal, Italy, Hungary, and India, Ricardo et al. (2016) found educational level of the population, parental education level, and employer support enabled participation. Nonparticipation was higher among older age groups, less qualified, low-skilled parents, and those with “non-existent or irregular reading habits” (p. 153).
Several studies have examined barriers to participation with particular groups of adults. For example, Biedenweg et al. (2014) investigated older adults' motivations and barriers to participating in exercise programs. They found several personal motivators such as enjoying being with others along with barriers such as not being motivated or having poor health. Chuang (2015) found four barriers to women's participation in continuing professional development—family and time constraints, cost and work constraints, lack of support systems, and lack of career advice and resources. Finally, Kasworm (2012) examined participation of adults in higher education in the United States. She reported that three barriers “continue to detract and deter adult learners in adult higher education … 1) time and access issues, 2) financial aid supports issues, and 3) concerns for institutional supports and services” (abstract, p.1).
Adding a Sociological Lens to Explanations of Participation
Viewing participation from the perspective of barriers lends another dimension to the field's attempt to understand why some adults participate in adult education and others do not. But this perspective tells only part of the story. The bulk of research in North America on nonparticipation has been from the perspective of the individual's motivation, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, position in the life cycle, and so on. This has not always been the case, however, as Courtney (1992) points out in his historical analysis of participation research. Prior to the 1960s, a popular topic among researchers was social participation. General social participation refers to the extent to which a person is an active participant in family and community life; participating in adult education activities was considered just one component of social participation.
